Monthly Archives: September 2013

I just deployed one of the most exciting Spawning Pool updates ever. Well, most exciting to me, that is: hierarchical tags. Previously, to tag something on Spawning Tool, there were a few heuristics applied to the replays on upload, but the rest were manual tagging of categories and tags. Now, there is structure behind the tags so that a whole tree of tags can be applied when you apply only a single one. This is probably best explained by example.

The primary use case for this feature is build orders. Let’s say you open “15 Hatch, 17 Pool”. That itself is a tag. This build, however, is also a “Hatch First” build as well as a “Fast Expand” build. Previously, you would need to enter all 3 of these tags to get the replay to appear under all 3 types, and if you uploaded another “15 Hatch, 17 Pool”, you would have to do the work all again. Now, the backend knows the structure that “15 Hatch, 17 Pool” is a type of “Hatch First” build, so it will implicitly label the build for browsing. Check out http://spawningtool.com/replays/?tag=309 to see it in action. Continue reading →

Sorry that actual development of the site has been slow recently. There are various factors, but the most important one is that I have been having a lot of forearm soreness recently, so I’m trying to let my hands rest. I readjusted my desk both at work and at home, and I’m stretching regularly over the course of the day. I think it’s working, and I plan to get back into serious development next week.

To stay active, though, I have made a big push recently towards marketing and content. I posted an official TeamLiquid thread for Spawning Tool. It’s decayed a bit, and I’m not really sure what the proper etiquette is for appropriate bumping, but I guess I’ll learn soon.

I’m also tweeting from @spawningtool. Again, I don’t really use my personal twitter account, so I’m not really sure what the proper etiquette is here, but I’ll try to avoid major gaffes. My plan is to regularly tweet interesting stats derived from replay data as a proof of concept for the site. Follow me on twitter if you’re interested in that. Continue reading →